[REVIEW] Gigabyte AORUS AC300W V2.0 Case

[napper_tapper]

Hi all, 

 

I wish there was more information on this case before I bought it, but alas here we are and here is my findings:

 

NEGATIVES:

 

1. The case headroom above the top of the motherboard tray to the underside of the fan mounting slots is not great, you will not get a radiator and fan in here without removing the heatsinks on your motherboards VRMs, so a waterblock is essential. This may just be in my particular instance because the heat pipes and heatsink on my Gigabyte AORUS (X470) Gaming 7 motherboard are rather beefy,

 

2. There is a HDMI input on the front of the case and in my scenario it is completely redundant as there is no HDMI input on either my motherboard or GPU, so I wanted to remove it but it is literally screwed into the front fascia of the case and you need to completely disassemble the fascia panel to remove the cable. It would have been really nice if it just unplugged like the USB 3.0 ribbons on the fascia panel instead,

 

3. There isn't a great deal of room between the rear of the motherboard tray and where the back panel would be in the closed position, effective cable management is a must and I am actually struggling to get all cables arranged in a way that I don't need extenders or large "trunks" of cables, a slightly wider case or even moving the motherboard tray nearer the front would have been nice,

 

4. There isn't a great deal of room inside the PSU shroud, even when you take out the 3.5" drive bays, there is still a steel bulkhead that cannot be removed and this seriously impedes access to the cabling of the PSU once the PSU is installed, it would have been better if this bulkhead either had larger cable pass-throughs cut into it, was removable or simply never there at all,

 

5. There is no rubber grommets for the two square cable holes on the motherboard try but there is a grommet on the hole coming up from the PSU shroud,

 

6. The see-through panel is not made of tempered glass, which is very disappointing from a case that cost £129.99 GBP (approx. $170.00 USD).

 

POSITIVES:

 

1. None. I wish I knew all this before buying the case so I could have bought another case instead. I bought it before my other components arrived and I am outwith the returns period so I am stuck with it. Maybe once I have the PC built and finished I will grow to like it.